Skubick's Capitol: Slicing up higher ed pie not what it used to be for Michigan, MSU, WSU

July 28, 2003|By Tim Skubick

Funny things happen on the higher education budget bill when you lose your Sugar Daddy. Ask the dejected gang in Ann Arbor if they miss John Schwarz.

It was not a great day for the Maze and Blue, Green and White and Wayne State the other day. When lawmakers signed the higher-ed conference report, the lobbyist for the U of M left the room. She had a new university president she was trying to impress but her body language told you she was not a happy camper.

For years the chair of the Senate higher-ed budget was Sen. John Schwarz, a graduate of the U of M. He made sure his school was No. 1 in the money category while he kept a sympathetic eye on MSU and WSU, too. But he's only a fond memory. "U of M has had a tough year," observed a lobbyist from a competing campus outstate. Its 6.5-percent tuition increase was coupled with the layoff of 325 faculty and staff. Ouch.

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Four universities out of 15 actually got more money from the state while the rest got a budget wrenching 6.7-percent cut. The special four got special treatment because they have special friends.

The guy who replaced Schwarz managed to squeeze an extra $2-million-plus for Saginaw Valley in his back yard. Sen. Mike Goscha can expect a cushy seat in the press box at any sporting events up there.

Oakland University got an additional $3.4 million, compliments of Oakland County Sen. Shirley Johnson. She chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and when she and others dismantled the so-called "tier" funding system that Schwarz instituted which favored his alma mater, she gloated, "Where's Schwarz now?"

Rep. Sandy Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, who chairs the House higher ed budget, found a last-minute $538,000 for CMU. And Grand Valley got $5 million, thanks in part, to Sen. GOP leader Ken Sikemma, who hails from that side of the state. He was in a front-row seat at the budget talks and at one point he had pushed the GVSU increase to $11 million before it was pared back by saner heads.

It's not what you know when it comes to doling out the higher-ed cash. The extra money was designed to boost state aid to the lowest four schools in the bunch and bring them up to a floor of about $3,900 per student, which the other schools were already receiving.

But to add insult to injury, when the governor and GOP leaders decided to add in an extra $5 million to the other 11 schools that got whacked, the Big Three schools argued for a fatter portion of the pie. It was a sop to help wipe away the tears.

Goscha said yes, but Caul said no and she won. The measly $5 million was spread across the board so the large schools got the same as tiny Lake Superior in the U.P. That caused even more hard feelings and the chump change won't help reduce some hefty tuition increases.

The university budget committee playing field is not level and it's getting more tilted away from the bigger schools. They don't have the clout they once enjoyed because outstate legislators dominate the House and Senate panels. That leaves one lawmaker from Ann Arbor, one from East Lansing, and one from the Detroit area on the committee who can go to bat for Michigan State, Michigan and Wayne State. They can be easily outvoted by everyone else and they were. And mark that as a trend that will get worse.

The governor reveals that the higher-ed budget was the toughest one to resolve. Her budget director, Mary Lannoye, was especially upset over efforts to treat some schools better than others. She let everyone know it, too. But her across-the-board, treat-everyone-the-same approach got bombed by the GOP.

Tempers often flared because you have 15 schools and each lobbyist is evaluated, in part, on how much bacon he or she brings home. The competition is more fierce than on the football field with much more at stake. And while the higher-ed community claims to be one big happy family, when the shekels are passed out, it's not. Ask the 11 schools who get the short end of the stick this year.

- Tim Skubick is the longest-serving member of the State Capitol Press Corps, with 33 years of covering Michigan government and politics. His column appears in the Saturday HT.